Conventionally, an information processing apparatus having a plurality of operating systems (OSs) is known. Switching between the OSs allows a user to use application programs dependent upon each OS with one information processing apparatus, thus improving the level of convenience in using the information processing apparatus. Hereinafter, a process carried out by executing an OS program is referred to as an OS process, or simply an OS. A process carried out by executing an application program is referred to as an application process, or simply an application.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of usage states conducted by a user of a dual OS terminal (information processing apparatus) having two types of OSs. First, at the point in time T01, the user is viewing a video with an application running on a first OS. At the point in time T02, the user decides to edit the video that he/she is viewing. It is assumed that the user feels that, for editing the video, an application running on a second OS is better than an application running on the first OS and so the user decides to switch to the second OS. Therefore, at the point in time T03, the user manually switches between OSs and between display windows to the second OS side. At the point in time T04 after the second OS has been activated, the user searches for an application related to video editing and activates the application. At the point in time T05, the user may edit the video with the activated application.
Related to this type of technique, an information processing apparatus that may exclusively switch operating environments is known. With this type of information processing apparatus for example, the operating environment is switched to allow either the first OS or the second OS to run. For example, when switching between OSs, the user gives an instruction to switch between OSs when activating the information processing apparatus after terminating the OS that was running. When a certain message is stored in a storage device while the first OS is running, the operation of an OS (e.g., the second OS) for executing the message is started when the power is turned on and restart is conducted.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-202691 discloses a related technique.
However, in a conventional information processing apparatus, a certain amount of time and effort are involved since the user is expected to manually perform the restart when switching between the OSs and press a button to give the instruction to conduct the switch. More time and effort are involved to search for a desired application on the selected OS and activate the application.
For example, even if the OS to be selected upon activation may be determined automatically, the user is expected to perform certain tasks when switching between OSs and time and effort are involved similarly. Also the problem remains that the user has to wait during switching time for switching between OSs and between applications.
Accordingly, conventional information processing apparatuses are not very convenient when switching between OSs and between applications.